Association of Wolbachia with gene expression in Drosophila testes

Wolbachia is a genus of intracellular symbiotic bacteria that are widely
distributed in arthropods and nematodes. These maternally inherited
bacteria regulate host reproductive systems in various ways to facilitate
their vertical transmission. Since the identification of
Wolbachia in many insects, the relationship between Wolbachia and the host
has attracted great interest. Numerous studies have indicated
that Wolbachia modifies a variety of biological processes in the host.
Previous studies in Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster)
have demonstrated that Wolbachia can affect spermatid differentiation,
chromosome deposition, and sperm activity in the early stages of
spermatogenesis, leading to sperm dysfunction. Here, we explored
the putative effect of Wolbachia in sperm maturation using
transcriptomic approaches to compare gene expression in
Wolbachia-infected and Wolbachia-free D. melanogaster adult
testes. Our findings show that Wolbachia affects many biological
processes in D. melanogaster adult testes, and most of the
differentially expressed genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism,
lysosomal degradation, proteolysis, lipid metabolism, and immune
response were upregulated in the presence of Wolbachia. In
contrast, some genes that are putatively associated with cutin
and wax biosynthesis and peroxisome pathways were downregulated.
We did not find any differentially expressed genes that are
predicted to be related to spermatogenesis in the datasets. This
work provides additional information for understanding the
Wolbachia-host intracellular relationships.